Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

jmonroe1

mjfloyd1 said:

2023 Lexus RX with same gaping maw

https://www.caranddriver.com/photos/g41095696/2023-lexus-rx-drive-gallery/

————————————————-
Don’t tell us you thought Lexus was going to change their tradition.

jmonroe

laurasdada

oldfarmer50 said:

Here’s a recent addition to the cars up for sale at the Saratoga car auction later this month. I wonder if I can afford it.

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2166/2021-audi-r8

If not, you can always bid on, "The neeewwww Allante!"
Some interesting cars in this auction, something for everyone here.

andres3

tifighter said:

They finally held still long enough for a photo. Siblings….

That doesn't look like Long Beach Blue there.

nyccarguy

laurasdada said:

oldfarmer50 said:

Here’s a recent addition to the cars up for sale at the Saratoga car auction later this month. I wonder if I can afford it.

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2166/2021-audi-r8

If not, you can always bid on, "The neeewwww Allante!"
Some interesting cars in this auction, something for everyone here.

1st time in a long time I've seen a Married With Children reference!

tifighter

@stickguy said:
Man, the Z4 really looks lower.

I’m glad someone else noticed this. The M2 feels like a lifted car after sitting in the Z4.

tifighter

@qbrozen said:
Is that a 2-door classic Range Rover back there?

Yes. Full restoration to come, I’m told.

28firefighter

Is this your overflow lot, @tifighter ?

andres3

BMW may have taken the crown from Lexus on grilles. The RS3 looks better in person than in pictures, particularly in red as I saw on the I15 South about 5 PM yesterday. So much better than white or black.

tjc78

@Michaell said:
That show had the best series finale episode I’ve ever seen.

It sure did!

tifighter

28firefighter said:

Is this your overflow lot, @tifighter ?

At least until @breld moves to Seattle.

ab348

qbrozen said:

Is that a 2-door classic Range Rover back there?

Sure looks like one. Right colors for the era and UK plates too!

nyccarguy

andres3 said:

BMW may have taken the crown from Lexus on grilles. The RS3 looks better in person than in pictures, particularly in red as I saw on the I15 South about 5 PM yesterday. So much better than white or black.

I saw a white RS3 last week. With the Black Trim and Mirrors, it looks like a DX Accord (when they made the DX Accord).

28firefighter

I’ve been off all week with my son since he finished pre-K and doesn’t start Kindergarten until Monday. We’ve been road-tripping all over the Puget Sound - museums, hikes, bike rides. Been primarily driving the N to leave my wife with her car during the day. He calls it our race car.

I continue to be impressed. It transitions so nicely from boy racer around town in Sport or N mode to highway cruiser in Eco or Normal mode getting 30+ mpg. Then, it swallows up all our stuff including a kid mountain bike and a Costco trip with ease.

It is truly impressive how far Hyundai has come.

venture

andres3 said:

BMW may have taken the crown from Lexus on grilles. The RS3 looks better in person than in pictures, particularly in red as I saw on the I15 South about 5 PM yesterday. So much better than white or black.

We were at a baseball game last week and there was a red metallic BMW 4 series convertible in the lot. It's one of those cars you don't want to stare at, but you just can't help it.

corvette

Checking out the 2024 Equinox EV... The marketing material claims a starting MSRP of "around $30,000," so figure $33,000 plus destination for a base model with FWD and a 250 mile range. That seems insanely cheap given that there is no mention of that figure having the tax rebates figured in.

28firefighter

@corvette said:
Checking out the 2024 Equinox EV... The marketing material claims a starting MSRP of "around $30,000," so figure $33,000 plus destination for a base model with FWD and a 250 mile range. That seems insanely cheap given that there is no mention of that figure having the tax rebates figured in.

It got my Dad’s attention for sure.

tifighter

corvette said:

That seems insanely cheap given that there is no mention of that figure having the tax rebates figured in.

Don't worry, the dealers will take care of that.

corvette

28firefighter said:

It got my Dad’s attention for sure.

It basically obsoletes the current Nissan Leaf in terms of price vs. range.

roadburner

So yesterday I made an appointment to look at the C43 again on Saturday. At 7 pm I get an email telling me it sold. It had been on the lot for over 2 months. Very similar to the Mustang GT debacle in 2015; it had sat on the lot at Kings ford for some time; we test drove it on Tuesday and decided to buy it on Thursday- but it sold a couple of hours before I called. Oh well, at leapt I can say that the C43 was the first car priced under $50k that I could have realistically seen myself owning.

mjfloyd1

28firefighter said:

@corvette said:

Checking out the 2024 Equinox EV... The marketing material claims a starting MSRP of "around $30,000," so figure $33,000 plus destination for a base model with FWD and a 250 mile range. That seems insanely cheap given that there is no mention of that figure having the tax rebates figured in.

It got my Dad’s attention for sure.

How is your dad’s hand?

mjfloyd1

venture said:

andres3 said:

BMW may have taken the crown from Lexus on grilles. The RS3 looks better in person than in pictures, particularly in red as I saw on the I15 South about 5 PM yesterday. So much better than white or black.

We were at a baseball game last week and there was a red metallic BMW 4 series convertible in the lot. It's one of those cars you don't want to stare at, but you just can't help it.

Ideally BMW would go back to the traditional BMW kidney grille.

The current bucktooth/ huge nostril grille would look so much better if they painted it body color (or at least paint the lower half body color)

qbrozen

So wife’s volvo is out of commission again. This time it is an incident. She ran over something on the highway late night Thurs that tore the back bumper almost clean off. Thought I could take care of it, but, after gluing together a plastic bracket and getting the bumper off the ground, I found half the diffuser (body colored) and one exhaust tip MIA. Coupled with the crushed heat shielding, it is more than I’m willing to deal with. First appt with the body shop isn’t until 9/19.

Slightly odd thing with the insurance is if you hit an animal, its comp coverage and $100 ded. If you hit anything else, its collision and $500. So good thing she obviously must have run over a deer that someone ahead of her hit first.

stickguy

Hit the butcher and get some parts to stick up there.

fintail

Almost reminds me of the lower levels of LeMay.

tifighter said:

They finally held still long enough for a photo. Siblings….

fintail

The Bundy Bounce.

This W111 280SE coupe looks nice, work performed by a known specialist. Manual is pretty uncommon, I believe this is a Euro model:

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2084/1968-mercedes-benz-280se

And if you're not in a hurry:

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2127/1979-mercedes-benz-240d

laurasdada said:

oldfarmer50 said:

Here’s a recent addition to the cars up for sale at the Saratoga car auction later this month. I wonder if I can afford it.

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2166/2021-audi-r8

If not, you can always bid on, "The neeewwww Allante!"
Some interesting cars in this auction, something for everyone here.

stickguy

I should go and buy this one. The museum where the auction is is less than 20 minutes from my new house.

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2088/1976-triumph-tr6

breld

I’ll be going on a couple weeks with the X5 in the shop as they address some climate control issues and the driver’s seat massaging function not working (first world problems for sure). I found over the summer on particularly hot days that the climate control system wouldn’t cool down the front passengers very well. Apparently they’ve had to order a couple parts that are taking a while to arrive.

In the meantime, I have a very well equipped 530i as the loaner, which is fun for a change of pace. From an aesthetic perspective, it’s a sharp sedan…

breld

I got a call from my broker a couple nights ago to discuss pricing on my R1T as there is someone apparently interested. Haven’t heard any update, so not sure where that stands, but he mentioned how they’d be able to count it as a trade for 30 days (for the sales tax credit) if I was interested in anything they had in their inventory.

Weeeellll….may as well take a look.

I’ve been taking a hard gander at this E450 wagon. It’s very similar to the one my wife looked at a couple months ago, but the black exterior trim and aluminum interior trim (as opposed to the glossy wood) make it very attractive.

https://www.greenwoodautomotive.com/vehicle-details/used-2020-mercedes-benz-e-class-e-450-parker-co-id-48301089

tifighter

@fintail said:
Almost reminds me of the lower levels of LeMay.

Close. It’s actually a building owned by the Griots. One of two. They bought them to store Richard’s cars, but have opened up some of the space to others. Let’s just say there are some very notable cars on site. Walking in there is a private LeMay.

fintail

breld said:

I got a call from my broker a couple nights ago to discuss pricing on my R1T as there is someone apparently interested. Haven’t heard any update, so not sure where that stands, but he mentioned how they’d be able to count it as a trade for 30 days (for the sales tax credit) if I was interested in anything they had in their inventory.

Weeeellll….may as well take a look.

I’ve been taking a hard gander at this E450 wagon. It’s very similar to the one my wife looked at a couple months ago, but the black exterior trim and aluminum interior trim (as opposed to the glossy wood) make it very attractive.

https://www.greenwoodautomotive.com/vehicle-details/used-2020-mercedes-benz-e-class-e-450-parker-co-id-48301089

That car is uncommon for acoustic comfort and the aluminum trim, both of which are seldom-seen. Relatively loaded car, only missing some quite rare stuff like air suspension and head up (ad copy states designo upholstery but I am not sure about that).

Still feeling lucky I was able to buy out mine for its 45K residual.

sda

In this market, absolutely. And your car is nicely equipped and unique.

fintail

Some McCaw cars or tech baron material hidden down there?

I am always amazed at how popular Griots became, I still think of it as a relatively local operation.

tifighter said:

@fintail said:

Almost reminds me of the lower levels of LeMay.

Close. It’s actually a building owned by the Griots. One of two. They bought them to store Richard’s cars, but have opened up some of the space to others. Let’s just say there are some very notable cars on site. Walking in there is a private LeMay.

fintail

I notice those car buyer quotes have softened a bit, but the car is also not getting younger. Those who leased in 2018-19-20 got lucky.

sda said:

In this market, absolutely. And your car is nicely equipped and unique.

oldfarmer50

fintail said:

The Bundy Bounce.

This W111 280SE coupe looks nice, work performed by a known specialist. Manual is pretty uncommon, I believe this is a Euro model:

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2084/1968-mercedes-benz-280se

And if you're not in a hurry:

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2127/1979-mercedes-benz-240d

laurasdada said:

oldfarmer50 said:

Here’s a recent addition to the cars up for sale at the Saratoga car auction later this month. I wonder if I can afford it.

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2166/2021-audi-r8

If not, you can always bid on, "The neeewwww Allante!"
Some interesting cars in this auction, something for everyone here.

That’s interesting that the dealer is sending it to the classic car auction. If you’re interested in it I can ask about it from one of our drivers who moonlights there. That store is right across the street from where we take our ice cream break when working the airport.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

I should go and buy this one. The museum where the auction is is less than 20 minutes from my new house.

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2088/1976-triumph-tr6

I think they moved the auction over to near the Racino this year. That’s a shame since in the past they held it at SPAC right behind the museum.

You should go even if you don’t want to sit through the auction. All the cars are displayed.

breld

fintail said:

breld said:

I got a call from my broker a couple nights ago to discuss pricing on my R1T as there is someone apparently interested. Haven’t heard any update, so not sure where that stands, but he mentioned how they’d be able to count it as a trade for 30 days (for the sales tax credit) if I was interested in anything they had in their inventory.

Weeeellll….may as well take a look.

I’ve been taking a hard gander at this E450 wagon. It’s very similar to the one my wife looked at a couple months ago, but the black exterior trim and aluminum interior trim (as opposed to the glossy wood) make it very attractive.

https://www.greenwoodautomotive.com/vehicle-details/used-2020-mercedes-benz-e-class-e-450-parker-co-id-48301089

That car is uncommon for acoustic comfort and the aluminum trim, both of which are seldom-seen. Relatively loaded car, only missing some quite rare stuff like air suspension and head up (ad copy states designo upholstery but I am not sure about that).

Still feeling lucky I was able to buy out mine for its 45K residual.

Definitely a great deal to have bought out your wagon.

Thanks for the feedback on the options...there are also a few options they didn't list that I confirmed by digging into the VIN decoder. It does have the head-up display as well as the active multi-contour seats. And you're right, it does not have the designo upholstery, but does have the beige leather.

In any case, I was so smitten with the test drive that I did the deal. Swapping the X5 for it.

roadburner

My wife and I stopped by the local Audi/Alfa/Jaguar/LR/Maserati/Porsche dealer tonight. Nothing interested me except a Defender 110. It turned out it had a "Market Value Adjustment" of $15,000.
My wife and I agreed that we are done with that store.

stickguy

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

I should go and buy this one. The museum where the auction is is less than 20 minutes from my new house.

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2088/1976-triumph-tr6

I think they moved the auction over to near the Racino this year. That’s a shame since in the past they held it at SPAC right behind the museum.

You should go even if you don’t want to sit through the auction. All the cars are displayed.

I did not realize. but I know where that is. could be fun if you don't need to buy a ticket or anything. I am sure the wife will love it, as long as I take her to Druther's after (or maybe before!)

fintail

Thanks, if I had the spare money and space, I just might, looks like a really legit car.

Takes a certain person to want one of those - 0-60 is in the 25 second range, and that's not a joke. However, they do have a cult around them, probably due to design and build quality.

oldfarmer50 said:

fintail said:

The Bundy Bounce.

This W111 280SE coupe looks nice, work performed by a known specialist. Manual is pretty uncommon, I believe this is a Euro model:

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2084/1968-mercedes-benz-280se

And if you're not in a hurry:

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2127/1979-mercedes-benz-240d

laurasdada said:

oldfarmer50 said:

Here’s a recent addition to the cars up for sale at the Saratoga car auction later this month. I wonder if I can afford it.

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2166/2021-audi-r8

If not, you can always bid on, "The neeewwww Allante!"
Some interesting cars in this auction, something for everyone here.

That’s interesting that the dealer is sending it to the classic car auction. If you’re interested in it I can ask about it from one of our drivers who moonlights there. That store is right across the street from where we take our ice cream break when working the airport.

fintail

breld said:

fintail said:

breld said:

I got a call from my broker a couple nights ago to discuss pricing on my R1T as there is someone apparently interested. Haven’t heard any update, so not sure where that stands, but he mentioned how they’d be able to count it as a trade for 30 days (for the sales tax credit) if I was interested in anything they had in their inventory.

Weeeellll….may as well take a look.

I’ve been taking a hard gander at this E450 wagon. It’s very similar to the one my wife looked at a couple months ago, but the black exterior trim and aluminum interior trim (as opposed to the glossy wood) make it very attractive.

https://www.greenwoodautomotive.com/vehicle-details/used-2020-mercedes-benz-e-class-e-450-parker-co-id-48301089

That car is uncommon for acoustic comfort and the aluminum trim, both of which are seldom-seen. Relatively loaded car, only missing some quite rare stuff like air suspension and head up (ad copy states designo upholstery but I am not sure about that).

Still feeling lucky I was able to buy out mine for its 45K residual.

Definitely a great deal to have bought out your wagon.

Thanks for the feedback on the options...there are also a few options they didn't list that I confirmed by digging into the VIN decoder. It does have the head-up display as well as the active multi-contour seats. And you're right, it does not have the designo upholstery, but does have the beige leather.

In any case, I was so smitten with the test drive that I did the deal. Swapping the X5 for it.

Whoa, congrats! They are kind of a sublime drive, cool to see someone else in the club.

Head up is pretty cool, that and acoustic comfort are what I wish my car had - but in choosing a car off the lot, you can only check so many boxes, I am lucky to have the spec of my car. The seats will be a fun toy as they also have a massage function.

qbrozen

@breld said:
Definitely a great deal to have bought out your wagon.

Thanks for the feedback on the options...there are also a few options they didn't list that I confirmed by digging into the VIN decoder. It does have the head-up display as well as the active multi-contour seats. And you're right, it does not have the designo upholstery, but does have the beige leather.

In any case, I was so smitten with the test drive that I did the deal. Swapping the X5 for it.

Now tell us how you swapped it for an SUV (probably Porsche) before getting home.

andres3

The Macan Turbo is still sitting at San Diego Audi in a beautiful blue. I have a feeling the 3.6 6 cylinder turbocharged engine in that would be more fun. 21" wheels seem like overkill though.

oldfarmer50

roadburner said:

My wife and I stopped by the local Audi/Alfa/Jaguar/LR/Maserati/Porsche dealer tonight. Nothing interested me except a Defender 110. It turned out it had a "Market Value Adjustment" of $15,000.
My wife and I agreed that we are done with that store.

There’s a local Chevy/Ford multi dealer near me that proudly advertises “market pricing” as if this will save you money. They’ve been doing this even before the current craziness. They must assume a low intelligence of their buyers.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

I should go and buy this one. The museum where the auction is is less than 20 minutes from my new house.

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/vehicles/2088/1976-triumph-tr6

I think they moved the auction over to near the Racino this year. That’s a shame since in the past they held it at SPAC right behind the museum.

You should go even if you don’t want to sit through the auction. All the cars are displayed.

I did not realize. but I know where that is. could be fun if you don't need to buy a ticket or anything. I am sure the wife will love it, as long as I take her to Druther's after (or maybe before!)

The past few times I’ve attended I think there was a $20 admission fee but that was offset by the full color brochure which itself was worth it for the photos and descriptions. Just stay away from the $5 hot dogs and you’ll have enough money left over to gamble at the casino.

mjfloyd1

@breld said:
Definitely a great deal to have bought out your wagon.

Thanks for the feedback on the options...there are also a few options they didn't list that I confirmed by digging into the VIN decoder. It does have the head-up display as well as the active multi-contour seats. And you're right, it does not have the designo upholstery, but does have the beige leather.

In any case, I was so smitten with the test drive that I did the deal. Swapping the X5 for it.

Did you customize/ accessorize the X5 for the next owner?🤣😂

But weren’t you looking to swap the Rivian instead?

ab348

fintail said:

Whoa, congrats! They are kind of a sublime drive, cool to see someone else in the club.

I wonder if he'll have it long enough to get the membership card printed up and sent along.

xwesx

breld said:

Thanks for the feedback on the options...there are also a few options they didn't list that I confirmed by digging into the VIN decoder. It does have the head-up display as well as the active multi-contour seats. And you're right, it does not have the designo upholstery, but does have the beige leather.

In any case, I was so smitten with the test drive that I did the deal. Swapping the X5 for it.

Very pretty! Definitely a six-weeker!

xwesx

stickguy said:

I did not realize. but I know where that is. could be fun if you don't need to buy a ticket or anything. I am sure the wife will love it, as long as I take her to Druther's after (or maybe before!)

https://www.saratogaautoauction.org/tickets

corvette

stickguy said:

I am sure the wife will love it, as long as I take her to Druther's after (or maybe before!)

I immediately thought of this (we still have one in Kentucky):

jmonroe1

ab348 said:

fintail said:

Whoa, congrats! They are kind of a sublime drive, cool to see someone else in the club.

I wonder if he'll have it long enough to get the membership card printed up and sent along.

————————————————-
Hell, I didn’t think he’d have enough time to get it entered into his signature line but he did.

Good luck with it @breld.

jmonroe